The present invention relates generally to methods and apparatus for delivering personalized advertising and information content to Internet users. More specifically, the present invention provides apparatus and methods for delivering and displaying advertising over the Internet, and for providing subsidized network hardware and Internet connections.
Worldwide use of the Internet is growing at an extremely rapid pace. Millions of people worldwide use the Internet daily for accessing information, shopping, recreation, receiving product updates, and other communications. As computers and Internet access become less expensive and easier to use, use of the Internet will become even more widespread. Additionally, many hand-held devices, such as hand-held personal computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and even cellular phones are now able to access the Internet. It is expected that the availability of devices such as xe2x80x9cInternet appliances,xe2x80x9d that permit households to access the Internet without using a home computer, will even further increase Internet usage over the next few years.
Many companies view the Internet as a profitable place to advertise their goods and services. Many web sites, especially xe2x80x9cportalxe2x80x9d sites that provide a starting point for browsing the web, are supported by selling advertising space on their web pages. The advertisements typically appear at the top or bottom of a web page, and are referred to as banner ads. Banner ads may be animated, and typically include a hypertext link that takes the user to the sponsor""s web page when the user clicks on the banner ad.
At present, portal sites may charge anywhere from $25 to $60 or more per thousand times they display a sponsor""s banner ad. Additionally, many portal sites on the web receive payment (up to several dollars) each time a user clicks on a sponsor""s banner ad to go to the sponsor""s web site. Many portal sites even receive a percentage of any transaction that results from a user transferring from the portal site to a commerce site. Selling banner ad space has proven extremely profitable for many portal sites.
There are many web sites that offer users xe2x80x9cfreexe2x80x9d services in return for being able to display banner ads on the user""s screen. These services include e-mail service, calendar and scheduling services, web space (typically, the user""s web pages must display banner ads provided by the service), and other Internet services. Some companies have even offered free access to the Internet, or free computer systems in return for the right to display advertisements on the user""s screen. The ability to display commercial messages on a user""s computer screen is therefore recognized in the Internet community as a valuable commodity.
At present, this trend of offering advertising-supported Internet services, or even xe2x80x9cfreexe2x80x9d hardware in return for displaying advertisements is offered by only a few companies. It requires considerable resources for an Internet service provider (ISP) to offer such marketing programs, since these programs involve providing hardware and custom software to ensure that the ads are displayed. Small ISPs do not have the resources to offer such hardware and software packages, and may have a difficult time finding enough advertisers to support large scale xe2x80x9cgiveawayxe2x80x9d programs. Further, small ISPs may have difficulty establishing, maintaining, and managing relationships with multiple advertisers.
This places smaller ISPs at a considerable disadvantage compared to larger ISPs, such as ATandT Worldnet, America Online, or Microsoft Network, since without being able to offer advertiser-supported hardware packages, they are unable to offer their users complete Internet solutions. Without providing custom software, small ISPs are unable to gain access to their user""s desktops, and are unable to display advertisements and other information unless a user voluntarily accesses the ISP""s web site. This prevents small ISPs from tapping into a considerable source of revenue. As a result, small ISPs are struggling, while portal sites on the web are thriving, and large ISPs, such as America On-Line, which have custom software allowing them to control a user""s web-browsing experience are highly profitable.
Even if small ISPs were able to display banner ads on the screens of their users, the effectiveness of typical banner ads is questionable. Additionally, many users object to typical banner ads because the ads often provide no useful information (i.e. they are poorly targeted), and typically interfere with Internet use by slowing down the display of other, more useful content.
One problem with banner ads is that they may become less effective as the web pages on which they are displayed become more visually interesting. Since banner ads are typically displayed at the same time as the web page on which they appear, the web page may draw the user""s attention away from the banner ad. Some web sites have attempted to solve this problem by placing banner ads in special pop-up windows that obscure the web page in which the user is interested, and will not go away until the user takes action to close the window. While this may get the user""s attention, it may not have the intended effect. Many forced attention grabbing techniques of this sort have been met with hostility by users.
Another problem with current banner ads is that they may contain large amounts of data in the form of graphics and animation. For a banner ad to draw a user""s attention, these animations and graphics are often necessary. Unfortunately, since banner ads are typically downloaded from a server at the same time as other web page content, downloading the banner ads takes bandwidth away from downloading other web content. It can take as long or longer to download the banner ads associated with a web page as it takes to download all of the other content of the page. This problem can become particularly acute when the user is accessing the Internet using a relatively low bandwidth connection, such as a telephone modem.
Currently, most home users of the Internet use a telephone modem to connect to the Internet. Such users may spend a considerable amount of time waiting for their computer systems to connect to the Internet. Additionally, while browsing the Internet, there are often long delay times while servers respond to requests. Further, overuse of the Internet during peak hours, and use of relatively low bandwidth communications channels often cause lengthy communications delays. As the Internet becomes ever more crowded, it is expected that communications delays will become longer and more common, users will have to wait longer for Internet servers to respond, and the amount of idle time during Internet browsing will increase.
At present, this idle time is typically wasted, with the user staring at a blank browser window or old web page content while the system connects to the Internet or waits for a server to respond. Users would probably not mind having material displayed during such idle time to divert their attention while waiting for web page content to be downloaded.
In view of the above, it would be desirable to provide methods that permit ISPs to offer complete Internet solutions without becoming hardware vendors.
It would further be desirable to provide methods and apparatus that permit ISPs to provide advertising and informational content directly to their user""s desktops.
It would also be desirable to provide methods and apparatus for displaying advertising and information on a user""s screen that uses idle time to download and display advertisements and other informational messages.
It is an object of the present invention to provide methods that permit ISPs to offer complete Internet solutions without becoming hardware vendors.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide methods and apparatus that permit ISPs to provide advertising and informational content directly to their user""s desktops.
It is also an object of the invention to provide methods and apparatus for displaying advertising and information on a user""s screen that uses idle time to download and display advertisements and other informational messages.
These and other objects of the present invention are accomplished by providing apparatus and methods that permit Internet access to be subsidized through advertising. The system of the present invention involves a xe2x80x9cportal providerxe2x80x9d, which provides users with a xe2x80x9cmini-portalxe2x80x9d device. The mini-portal device comprises a communication device, such as a modem, through which the user may connect to the Internet, coupled with display software.
The display software displays advertisements and other messages during selected idle times, when the user is likely to be paying attention to the display, but is not engaged in activity that will be disturbed by the display of advertisements. These idle times may include a period of time when the communication device is connecting to the Internet, when the user is waiting for a predetermined period of time for a response from a server, and when the user""s browsing activity has been idle for a predetermined length of time. Additionally, the display software downloads the advertisements and other messages only at times when the user""s other activities will not be affected by downloading the messages, such as when the user""s Internet connection is idle, or when the user""s computer has been idle for a predetermined period of time. Advertisements and other messages are stored on the user""s computer, so they need not be downloaded to be displayed.
An ISP that wishes to provide its users with a complete Internet solution at a subsidized price may enter into arrangements with the portal provider to provide the users with mini-portal devices, and to send advertising material to the users, for display using the display software of the mini-portal device. Access to the users may then be sold to advertisers, who will provide the advertising material that is to be displayed. Revenue gained by selling access to the users to advertisers may be used to subsidize providing the users with the mini-portal device, and to subsidize Internet connection fees.
The display software and mini-portal include a validation procedure, wherein the mini-portal devices contact a validation server operated by the portal provider to receive a validation stamp, and a pointer to an advertisement server, from which advertisements (or pointers to advertisements) may be obtained. The validation stamp may have a fixed duration, after which the mini-portal must again contact the validation server to receive a new validation stamp, and a new pointer to an advertisement server. This validation mechanism optionally gives the portal provider an ongoing role in providing advertisements to the users, and in targeting advertisements.
When a mini-portal contacts the advertisement server, the advertisement server may provide the mini-portal with pointers to content servers, which provide the actual content of the advertisements, and a set of parameters that may specify an expiration time for the advertisements, a frequency with which advertisements are to be shown, or a number of times an advertisement should be shown before the advertisement expires. Additionally, the parameters may set the idle times for the display software.
Additionally, the advertisement server may collect statistics from a mini-portal, such as the number of times any given advertisement has been displayed, or the total number of times the display software has displayed messages on the screen. This data may be used to determine how much various advertisers should be charged, to target advertisements, or to assist in determining whether a user has disabled the display software. Collection of statistics also may be handled by a separate statistics server.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the communication device that is provided as part of the mini-portal comprises a device that combines the functions of a modem, a network interface card, and a network hub. By providing a mini-portal with all of these capabilities, ISPs may offer their users a complete networking solution, including both Internet access for numerous computers (using a proxy server), and the services of a local area network.